10 Things I Learned This Weekend

10. Some penalties are worth it. Whether it makes me a "bad derby girl" or not, I was damn proud of my one major penalty, and I wouldn't trade it in to play safer.

9. Soup is not always a good thing.

8. Car rides seem much shorter when you're laughing the whole way there and back.

7. The score does not always reflect how hard you play. We lost by almost 200 points, and I am still damn proud of how we played out there. Whatever the score, we made them work for it - down jammers, down some of our hardest hitters, we made them work for it.

6. Chatty girls are awesome on and off the track (and a big shout-out and congrats to Rita on her trial-by-fire first bout!).

5. Focus is not an unreachable goal.

4. Losing but learning something very important makes the loss worth it. There's no pride lost if you try your hardest.

3. I CAN. In spite of all the insecurity I've had this season about whether or not I'm pulling my weight, I proved to myself yesterday that, just as I suspected, the only person keeping me from reaching my potential was me.

2. Minnesota may have ugly colors, but they looked amazing out there last night with their death defying jammers and their speedy blockers.

1. I love my derby family. Amyn and Saintly reminded us to feel pride in what we've accomplished, no matter the loss. Scar and Bea reminded me that each and every one of us has that fire inside us, we just need the right atmosphere to release it. Beezy reminded me that if you get knocked down eight times, the important thing is that you get up eight times. Loss or not, I loved yesterday, and I needed it. I've never felt so strongly that this was the right place for me to be.

Ten Things I Learned This Weekend

In the grand BCR tradition started by 9lb., usually written on Facebook, I'm about to drop a knowledge bomb. I'm going to move all these notes over to my blog from now on, partially for interest's sake, and partially because I have more control over formatting and whatnot here than I do on Facebook.

Without further ado...

10. Saintly knows a thing or two about underpants preparedness. Just ask her.

9. Although this is roller derby, there is indeed a point where there is Too Much Booty.

8. Free food makes an after party happy. Especially good free food. Especially the cupcake kind of free food.

7. Slim knows many different ways to use a pool cue. I can't tell you any of them because that's classified information.

6. It's really, really funny when random bar dudes try to chat up your gay teammates. Do you tell them? No. Definitely not. You let them shoot themselves in the foot. You watch, and you wait, and you giggle behind your hand.

5. Having good refs is a joyous experience. Everything ran so smoothly that there really isn't anything to complain about from an officiating perspective.

4. WFTDA stat geeks impress me. Reading over our stat sheet from Saturday's bout, there is so much information that I'm floored. Who got points on whom, every single lineup we fielded, the percentage of the bout a player played. Amazing.

3. Bea and Monroe (who I insatiably desire to call Mo-Mo for some reason) played like seasoned players in their first bout. No fear, no problem.

2. It is insanely amazing to watch teeny little Lita go after a jammer. It is even more amazing to watch her knock them to the floor with her fierceness.

1. Although we won by a very large margin Saturday, and although those are usually the times when you start putting in your "second string" players, I think derby somehow handles this differently. I feel like if we hadn't skated as hard as we did for the whole game, that would have been insulting to DDG. They deserved our best, and we gave them our best. And I am very proud.